Friday, August 29, 2014

Stewart B. Gilliam—by professional identity, Stu
Gilliam—a comedian, ventriloquist and actor whose career reached its height in
the 1960s and ’70s, helped break ground for African-American comics to perform
for racially mixed audiences in segregated states. A Bahá’í and enthusiastic
teacher of the Faith for nearly four decades, mainly in the Los Angeles area,
he had recently joined his wife as a pioneer in the Czech Republic.

Stu passed away October 11, 2013, in Ceske Budejovice
after a heart attack. He was 80.

In a message expressing condolences to his wife, Vivian
Lee White Baravalle Gilliam, and his daughter, Velnita Renee Woods of Texas,
the Universal House of Justice wrote, “May his devoted efforts to serve the
Cause as a pioneer together with you to the Czech Republic towards the end of
his life be a source of encouragement and inspiration to his loved ones and
friends.”

In its turn, the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá’ís of the United States praised his “ardent desire and strenuous efforts”
in moving abroad “despite significant impediments to his health and mobility.”

And a letter from the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís
of Los Angeles noted his “success as a Bahá’í teacher and popular speaker at
firesides and other Bahá’í gatherings. Even in advanced sickness, Stu was an
avid promoter of the Faith and its principles, just as concerned for the
spiritual health of the doctors and nurses around him as they were in attending
to his physical well-being.”

Born in 1933 in a middle-class area of Detroit, Stu was
the grandson of a minister and grew up in a strong church tradition, according
to an audio interview posted on the Web by a Bahá’í.

He proved a voracious student of a variety of performing
arts, and was so gifted as a young ventriloquist that he left home at 14 to
perform with a circus and in state fairs, then after a few years began to
appear in clubs in Chicago. During his two-year service in the Korean War, he
and his dummy Oscar entertained troops.

In the 1950s and ’60s he often worked a nationwide
circuit of clubs with mainly or exclusively black audiences, including several
appearances at the Apollo in New York City. He sometimes served as an emcee for
mixed-race shows, but in several states was prevented from appearing onstage at
the same time as white performers.

According to his interview, his growing comedy skills
gained him connections and respect among “other writer-performers who wanted
black entertainers as a whole to advance.” Recognizing his acumen with mixed
audiences, the Playboy Club circuit placed him before largely white crowds,
including in southern states where that constituted an open challenge to
segregation laws.

The late 1960s saw Stu break into national television,
including The Ed Sullivan Show, Playboy After Dark and The Dean Martin Show. He
also traveled to England and France with Liberace.

Over the next two decades, he continued to appear on
television — comedy, drama and game shows — and was a star of the sitcom Roll
Out for one season. He also appeared in the 1975 Broadway production The Wiz;
did voice work for many children’s cartoons; and acted in a number of movies,
his last role being in Meteor Man in 1993.

In Los Angeles, Stu’s friend Al Waterford Sr. — whom he
had met through a fellow comic, Waterford’s cousin Redd Foxx — introduced Stu
to the Bahá’í Faith in 1975. He attended fireside gatherings with the Waterford
family on their sailboat docked in Marina Del Rey; during one of those
firesides Stu first met Vivian White.

In the Web interview, Stu said he was afraid his friend
had become enmeshed in a cult. So “to get him out of trouble” Stu went to the
Los Angeles Bahá’í Center, bought a number of books, got into his camper and
drove upstate to a national park, where he spent some time camping and reading.

Before long he had decided he was also a Bahá’í. “It made
so much sense to start with,” he reflected, “the ideal that religion is one.”

He was active for many years in area Bahá’í communities,
notably North Hollywood.

Vivian White Baravalle, who had lived as a Bahá’í pioneer
for 20 years in Italy, then since 1998 in the Czech Republic, crossed paths
with Stu on a 2004 visit to Los Angeles. Both divorced from their previous
spouses, they rekindled their friendship; in 2007 they were married in a
ceremony at the Los Angeles Bahá’í Center.

He moved to be with her in Ceske Budejovice, but because
of continuing treatments and surgeries for lung cancer and COPD, he spent most
of his time in North Hollywood and Burbank. So Vivian would “commute” to
California in the summers.

“Stu loved his adopted country, the Czech Republic, and
its people, especially our many friends here,” his wife notes.

His burial spot is in Borsov nad Vltavou, a peaceful
locale on the Vltava River.

Lawrence Dillion Heath passed away on Saturday, August
16, 2014. He was born on November 14, 1925 in Bellrose, NY. His father worked
in the silent film industry at the Vitagraph studios in Brooklyn and Astoria
Studios in Queens. In 1935 the family moved permanently to Glendale, CA when
his father began working at the Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank.

Larry graduated from Hoover High School in June of 1943.
The Monday following graduation, Larry began working at the Warner Brothers
Studios, first on the labor gang, then shortly thereafter in the Editing
department shipping room. On his 18th birthday in November of 1943, Larry
enlisted in the United States Army.

Larry was placed in the 69th Infantry Division and
dispatched to the European theatre. Assigned to mortars and placed in the 271st
Regiment, M Company, he fought in the ''Battle of the Bulge'' and participated
in the Rhineland Campaign and Central Europe Campaign. He was awarded the
Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Infantryman's badge, in which he took great
pride.

Returning home in May of 1946, Larry began working in the
Editorial department of RKO studios in Hollywood, CA. On November 27, 1947
Larry married Raylene Spencer. They lived in Burbank, CA raising their six
children.

While Larry's career began working on motion pictures, he
transitioned into television and was a pioneer in the new industry. He became a
sound editor on early television programs such as ''The Buster Keaton Show''
and ''Beulah'' with Hattie McDaniel. In the early 1950's, Larry became a member
of the editorial staff on the ''Burns and Allen'' television show. Starting as
an assistant film editor, he moved up to Sound Editor and then Film Editor. He
became Editorial Department Head of the company (McCadden Productions), supervising
the editing on the TV shows "Burns and Allen", "I married
Joan", and "The Bob Cummings Show".

In Larry's editing career, he edited numerous television
shows, pilots and feature films. In the 1960s he worked on "The
Fugitive", "Gilligan's Island", and edited the feature film
''Billy Jack''. During the 1970's came "Rhoda" and "Angie".
The 1980's brought him to Universal Studios where he completed his career
editing "House Calls" and eight seasons of "Simon and Simon".
Larry retired from the film industry in 1990.

Larry is survived by his wife of 66 years, Raylene; his
daughter Mary Strawser, a retired School Teacher and School Administrator, and
her husband Edward Strawser; his sons: Larry Jr., a Principal at McGrath
elementary school in Newhall, CA, and his wife Laurie; Tim, a retired Insurance
Executive, and his wife Donna; John, a Film Editor and TV Producer/Director,
and his wife Patty; and David, an Editorial Department Head at Universal
Studios, and his wife Bonnie. Larry was preceded in death by his fifth son
Joseph, an Attorney in Long Beach, CA, who passed away in April of this year.
Larry is survived by Joseph's widow Tricia Heath. Larry was also preceded in
death by his granddaughter Brenda Heath and his daughter-in-law Diane Heath.

Larry's greatest pride was his family, including 15
grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren, his Catholic faith, and his Irish
Heritage.

On Saturday August 16, around 4 p.m., surrounded by his
wife, his children and his grandchildren, the door of heaven was opened to Dad.
Propelled by the love in his heart, Dad soared to his Beatific moment into the
arms of Jesus and the Blessed Mother.

Massachusetts native Bryce Dion, 'Cops' TV show crew
member killed by police while filming in Nebraska, was born in Lawrence

Mass.live

Conor Berry

August 28, 2014

LAWRENCE — Bryce Dion, the "Cops" TV show crew
member killed by police while filming in Nebraska this week, was born in
Lawrence and attended St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, the Lawrence
Eagle-Tribune reports.

Dion, 38, was the first crew member to die in the line of
duty in the history of the 25-year-old show, according to its producers.

"We are deeply saddened and shocked by this tragedy
and our main concern is helping his family in any way we can," Langley
Productions, which produces Cops, said in a statement.

It was a bullet from an Omaha police officer's gun that
killed the Massachusetts native, who was a sound technician for the popular
program "starring the men and women of law enforcement."

He was killed by "friendly fire," police Chief
Todd Schmaderer said, calling Dion a "friend" of the Omaha Police
Department. The death has cast a pall over the department. "Bryce was
their friend," Schmaderer said, adding that officers were "taking
this very hard."

"Cops" had been working with police in
Nebraska's largest city since June, USA Today reports, and many officers had
become friendly with the TV crew. "This is especially difficult for
them," Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert said.

Tim Bresnahan, a former sports reporter for the
Eagle-Tribune, said Dion was a Lawrence native who graduated from St. John's
Prep with Bresnahan. Dion's mother lives in Haverhill, according to the
Lawrence newspaper.

Dion and "Cops" cameraman Michael Lee were with
Omaha officers when they responded to a restaurant robbery, during which the
gunman also was shot and killed by police.

The suspect, 32-year-old Cortez Washington, was a prison
parolee from Kansas who was armed with an authentic-looking Airsoft pellet gun
that was mistaken for the real deal, the Daily News reports.

Dion was accidentally hit as officers opened fire on Washington
as the suspect fled from a Wendy's restaurant in Omaha, a city of more than
421,000 people. The incident remains under investigation.

John Langley, the creator and producer of
"Cops," reminded people that the show is as real as real can get.
" 'Cops' truly is a reality show. It's not manipulated, it's not
managed," he said at a press conference Wednesday. "It's all true,
it's all real, it happens as it happens."

Fans posted condolences on the reality show's Facebook
page, which now features a black band over the program's logo.

"The best thing to honor (Dion) would be to continue
filming episodes in his honor. Canceling is not what he would have wanted. May
he RIP and prayers to his family," Christian Miner said.

"It breaks my heart that you have lost one of your
best," Robert Grimm posted. "It is a stark example of the
circumstances that police face daily and the evil they encounter. ... My
condolences for your loss."

Thursday, August 28, 2014

William (Bill) Stratton, 83, Faria Beach, Ventura. The
world lost one of its most creative minds on August 20, 2014. Bill Stratton,
aka Kahuna to his grandchildren, paddled out from his beach house one last
time, with his children by his side, the sound of classical music in his ears
and the taste of a martini on his lips.

An original ad man of the early 1960's, Bill was
responsible for developing the persona of characters like Tony the Tiger for
television advertising. The leaden skies of Chicago and the high mortality rate
of the advertising business led him to California and screen writing for
television. He wrote several movies-of-the-week, including Voyage of the Yes,
collaborating with Johnny Cash on The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James and
The Baron and the Kid, writing and producing American Harvest, writing A Son's
Promise and the final installment of the Gunsmoke series: The Long Ride. Bill
was the longest standing writer for the original Hawaii Five-0 television
series, worked as a staff writer for Aaron Spelling on shows such as Vegas and
Hart to Hart, and contributed dozens of scripts to other shows including
Rockford Files, Harry O, Blue Knight, Mod Squad, and Storefront Lawyers. He
created the pilot and wrote scripts for the series Mickey Spillane's Mike
Hammer, starring Stacey Keach. He continued writing manuscripts and memoirs in
his retirement. He received the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe award for mystery
writing in 1983.

Bill was popular in the television industry for his
ability to create original stories with authentic dialogue, repudiating the
trite and formulaic. The well spring for his creativity was the Pacific Ocean
where he surfed or swam almost daily at his beloved Pitas Point for the past 5
decades. He was an avid tennis player -- one of the original founders of the
Ojai Valley Racquet Club. For those who knew him, his door was always open:
with wickedly strong coffee brewing, he was open to frank discussions on topics
including history, politics and personal development.

Born in 1930 in Kansas City, Missouri, Bill served in the
Korean War, was a journalism major at Kansas State University, was married to
Donna Lee MacDougall and then Sandra Freeman. His surviving family comprises
Hall and Alicia Stratton of Oak View, their sons Layne and Robert; Anna
Stratton of Washington DC; Shelby and Emily Fleming of Alexandria VA, their son
Nathan; and Sheryl Stratton of Falls Church VA, her children, Jay, Sarah and
Sabrina; Doug and Liz Freeman of Basalt CO and Ventura; and Bob and Debbie Freeman
of Salt Lake City UT, their sons Jacob and Andrew.

He requested his obituary state: The curmudgeon of Faria
Beach succumbed after a long heroic struggle with poison oak during which he
learned that "that man is rich who has a scratch for every itch."

A memorial service will be held this fall. Please contact
sheryl.stratton@verizon.net for details.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Stephen Lee, a talented character actor who spent more
than three decades in the business, died of a heart attack on August 14. He was
58.

Some of his more notable credits include the films
“Burlesque” (2010), with Cher and Christina Aguilera; “The Negotiator” (1998),
with Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey; and, much earlier, 1983’s “WarGames”
with Matthew Broderick.

Lee also did a great deal of TV work, with credits dating
back to “Hart to Hart” in 1981 and “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Who’s the Boss?”
in 1984.

The actor’s more recent TV credits include “NCIS,”
“Numbers,” “Bones” and “Ghost Whisperer,” and he worked last in 2010.

On the way he appeared on such TV shows as
“thirtysomething,” soap “Santa Barbara,” “Family Ties,” “Night Court,”
“Roseanne,” “Quantum Leap,” “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “Star Trek: The Next
Generation,” “Grace Under Fire,” “Babylon 5,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and
“Seinfeld.”

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Richard Attenborough, who was honored for his helming and
production of the 1982 Oscar best picture “Gandhi” but was best known to
American audiences for his role in Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” and its
first sequel as park creator John Hammond, died on Sunday, his son tells BBC
News. He was 90.

The stocky British filmmaker was awarded a life peerage
by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 for his stage work and for his efforts behind and
in front of the camera to promote British cinema.

While Attenborough had been a prominent character actor
in his native country since the early 1940s, he also achieved much as a
producer, motion picture executive and cultural impresario. At various times he
was chairman of the British Film Institute, Channel 4, Goldcrest Films, the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Capital Radio and a director of the Young
Vic and the British Film Institute. In the late ’70s, he helped preserve and
restore London’s Duke of York Theater.

A career in film directing began in 1969 with an adaptation
of Joan Littlewood’s biting musical satire “Oh! What a Lovely War.” Few of his
directing efforts achieved the stature of “Gandhi,” which he had championed for
more than 20 years. But there were noteworthy attempts to deal with historical
and biographical subjects including “Cry Freedom,” about South African
apartheid; “Chaplin,” a biography of the immortal screen comic; and
“Shadowlands,” based on William Nicholson’s play focusing on British writer
C.S. Lewis.

“I have no interest in being remembered as a great
creative filmmaker,” he once said. “I want to be remembered as a storyteller.”

Despite more than 50 years as a stage and screen actor —
including supporting roles in adventure pics “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965)
and “The Sand Pebbles” (1966) and “Doctor Dolittle” (1967) — it was only in
1992 that Attenborough achieved widespread international recognition for his
starring role in “Jurassic Park,” the largest-grossing film ever at the time.
(Later acting credits included Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” and the Cate
Blanchett starrer “Elizabeth.”)

In the late 1950s, in an effort to enhance the quality of
his movie assignments, Attenborough united with writer-director Bryan Forbes to
create Beaver Films. Their first effort, 1960’s “The Angry Silence,” was a
sharply defined working-class drama, part of the new generation of realistic
British films. In addition, Beaver produced “The League of Gentlemen,” “Whistle
Down the Wind,” “The L-Shaped Room” and “Seance on a Wet Afternoon” between
1961 and 1964. The last film, in which Attenborough co-starred with Kim
Stanley, brought him the British Academy Award along with his work in “Guns at
Batasi.” The positive reception for “Seance” in the U.S. coupled with his
supporting role in hit WWII actioner “The Great Escape” in 1963 led to a career
as a Hollywood character actor starting with “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965)
and “The Sand Pebbles” (1966).

In 1967 he appeared in the big-budget musical “Doctor
Dolittle,” which brought him a Golden Globe for supporting actor.

With the help of British actors including Laurence
Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, John Mills and Michael Redgrave,
Attenborough was able to persuade Paramount Pictures to bank his debut
directing effort, an adaptation of Joan Littlewood’s WWI fantasia “Oh What a
Lovely War.” Though not a financial success in the U.S., the film was honored
with a Golden Globe and six British Academy Awards.

Attenborough continued to act in films through the early
’70s in such efforts as “David Copperfield,” “A Severed Head,” “Loot” and the
chilling “10 Rillington Place,” in which he played a mass murderer. By 1972 he
had the money to shoot biographical adventure “Young Winston,” based on the
early life of Winston Churchill. The pic was well received, but his next film,
1977’s “A Bridge Too Far,” sported an international name cast but was a $25
million flop.

To produce and direct his next film, a biography of the
life of Indian pacifist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, Attenborough beat the bushes
for 20 years and redoubled his efforts only after Lean abandoned a similar
project. He turned down an offer to be associate director of Britain’s National
Theater, mortgaged his house, sold his cars, pawned his paintings, took on a
number of subpar roles in films such as “Brannigan,” “Rosebud” and “Ten Little
Indians” and made a poor directing choice in “Magic” for producer Joseph E.
Levine, basically done as a favor to interest Levine in financing “Gandhi.”

With the help of Goldcrest Films and Indian’s National
Film Development Corp., Attenborough had financing in hand by the end of the
1970s. He passed on several prominent actors such as Alec Guinness and Dustin
Hoffman to cast a highly regarded Royal Shakespeare Company actor, Ben
Kingsley, who was part Indian.

The film copped eight Oscars, including two for
Attenborough as best director and for producing the best picture. Attenborough
detailed his struggle to make the film in a book, “In Search of Gandhi,”
published in 1982.

In 1985, he was named chairman of Goldcrest just after he
completed work on a failed film adaptation of the Broadway musical “A Chorus
Line.” His next film, also a personal project, was “Cry Freedom,” the story of
British journalist Donald Woods (played by Kevin Kline) and South African
activist-martyr Steven Biko (a role for which Denzel Washington received a
supporting actor Oscar nomination).

His 1992 biopic “Chaplin” was less successful, though
Robert Downey Jr. drew a deserved Oscar nomination for best actor. The
following year Attenborough directed Anthony Hopkins and Oscar nominated Debra
Winger in “Shadowlands,” which proved both a commercial and critical success.

That was the same year Attenborough’s face finally become
familiar across America (and the world) in “Jurassic Park,” Spielberg’s
monumental blockbuster based on Michael Crichton’s novel. It was his first
acting assignment in 13 years and led to further work in front of the camera:
He played Kris Kringle in John Hughes’ remake of “The Miracle on 34th Street”
for the Fox Network, and over the

next several years appeared in roles in
Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet,” the Cate Blanchett starrer “Elizabeth” and telepic
“The Railway Children” (2000). In 2006 he appeared in “Welcome to World War One,”
a documentary about the making of “Oh! What a Lovely War.”

Attenborough was still directing, too. In 1996 he helmed
“In Love and War,” starring Chris O’Donnell and Sandra Bullock in the story of
the young Ernest Hemingay and a nurse he loved after he was injured in WWI. His
1999 film “Grey Owl” starred Pierce Brosnan as a Canadian fur trapper who
became a conservationist. Attenborough attempted a film that, like “Gandhi,”
carried a sociopolitical message, but Variety called the direction “old
fashioned.”

After an absence
of eight years, Attenborough directed the sentimental tale “Closing the Ring”
(2007), starring Christopher Plummer and Shirley MacLaine.

In May 2012 Attenborough teamed with Martin Scorsese and
Anthony Haas to develop the film “Silver Ghost,” a drama based on the true
story of the founding of Rolls Royce. Attenborough was to direct, but he was in
rapidly declining health after suffering a stroke in 2008 that left him in a
wheelchair.

The oldest son of an Anglo-Saxon scholar and university
administrator, Attenborough was the eldest of three sons. (Brother David is a
naturalist behind many acclaimed BBC documentary series). His mother, the
former Mary Clegg, was the daughter of art historian Samuel Clegg.

Born in Cambridge, he was already involved in amateur
theatrics by his teens. In 1940 Attenborough won a scholarship to the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, making his professional debut while still a
student in a production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Ah Wilderness!” In 1942 he made
his screen debut in Noel Coward’s “In Which We Serve,” directed by David Lean.

RADA honored him with the Bancroft Medal for fine acting
in 1942 and, upon leaving school, he made his West End debut in Clifford Odets’
“Awake and Sing.” Significant roles in productions of “Twelfth Night” and
“Brighton Rock” followed before Attenborough enlisted in the Royal Air Force,
becoming part of its film unit. He also flew film reconnaissance missions over
Germany during the war.

In 1946 he signed a contract with producers John and Ray
Boulting. He reprised his stage role in the film version of “Brighton Rock,”
followed by “The Guinea Pig” in 1948 and “The Gift Horse” in 1952.

His film career sputtered in the 1950s: Projects like
“Eight O’Clock Walk” and “The Baby and the Battleship” were abysmal. So he
returned to the stage in “To Dorothy, a Son,” “Double Image” and Agatha
Christie’s “The Mousetrap” (appearing in the original cast as Detective
Sergeant Trotter), which became England’s longest-running show.

Beginning in 1956, the film side picked up when he
appeared for the Boultings in a series of social satires including “Private’s
Progress” and “I’m All Right, Jack.”

His autobiography “Entirely Up to You, Darling” was
published in 2008.

Attenborough was married in early 1945 to actress Sheila
Sim, with whom he had three children, Jane, Charlotte and Michael, all of whom
worked in the performing arts.

The award-winning Salzburg filmmaker died shortly after
his 49th birthday in Vienna to severe disease

Vienna -. Austrian writer and director Florian Flicker is
dead Prism Film Production Company announced, Flicker died on Saturday
afternoon, just two days after his 49th birthday, in Vienna after a short bout
with a severe cancer.

Born in Salzburg Flicker known for his award-winning
feature film "The Raid" (2000) with Roland Daeringer, Josef Hader and
Joachim Bißmeier. Last time was his "Devil Woman" –an adaption of a
"frontier" for the cinema, which was awarded three times by the
Austrian Film Prize 2013, including that which won for best screenplay.

Flicker’s beginnings were in experimental film and
expanded cinema, with "Half the World" in 1993 he put out his first
feature film. In 1998, he released his road movie "Suzie Washington"
which was awarded the Best Austrian film. In 2000 he followed with "The
Raid" his best-known film.

Flicker was successful not only in feature films, but
also made himself a name as a documentarian. In 2006 his listed at the Hof Film
Festival, as well as diagonal-opening documentary about the Lower Austrian town
of Western tourist attraction "No Name City". And flicker in 1997 had
submitted a work off of fictional paths with a film about the New Folk Music
Group Attwenger.

Also at the theater it led flicker, so he staged twice in
2008 at the Vienna Schauspielhaus ("July" and "The
Strudlhofstiege, Episode 8"). He also taught in the new millennium, among
others at the Vienna

Film Academy, compiled reports and written with Dolphins
also a radio play for the NDR.

The movie was resting at this time. Only twelve years
after "The Raid" put Flicker with "frontier" again in 2012
before a full-length feature film. In addition to the Austrian Film Prize this
was after its local premiere at the film festival awarded Sarajevo and landed
on the long list of European Film Awards later.

Flicker had two more movies, a comedic and political, in
preparation before now overtook him cancer. On the Saturday afternoon Florian
Flicker succumbed at just 49 years of his suffering.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Michael A. Hoey, who wrote the screenplays for a pair of
Elvis Presley films and was the architect behind the 1966 cult science-fiction
movie The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, has died. He was 79.

Hoey, the son of English actor Dennis Hoey — who played
the bumbling Inspector Lestrade in the 1940s Universal Pictures series of
Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce — died Sunday of
cancer at his home in San Clemente, Calif., his son Dennis told The Hollywood
Reporter.

Michael Hoey also produced, wrote, directed and edited
several episodes of the 1980s music drama series Fame, based on the Alan Parker
box-office hit. He earned two Emmy Award nominations for his work on the show
and wrote a behind-the-scenes book about the series that was published in 2010.

Hoey penned the scripts for the Presley films Stay Away,
Joe and Live a Little, Love a Little, both released in 1968. For the latter, he
worked with director Norman Taurog, who also helmed the teen comedy Palm
Springs Weekend (1963), a film that Hoey produced.

In The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, a staff manning a
weather station on an isolated island fights for survival against a carnivorous
plant-like species that spews acid, moves around at night and reproduces
quickly.

The cast included Anthony Eisely, Mamie Van Doren, Bobby
Van and Billy Gray, best known as the son on Father Knows Best. Jack Broder
produced (with an uncredited assist from Roger Corman) and gave the movie what
Hoey once called its “abominable” title.

“I remember the day when I was rehearsing and Jack Broder
walked in and announced what the new title was going to be,” Hoey told author
Tom Weaver. “The entire cast was ready to walk out. They were furious.”

In the interview with Weaver, Hoey said the film had a
10-day shooting schedule and cost $178,000 to make.

Born in London and raised in Beverly Hills, Hoey began
his Hollywood career as an editor, working for such top-notch directors as John
Ford, George Cukor and Fred Zinnemann. Studio head Jack Warner made him a
producer for Palm Springs Weekend, which starred Troy Donahue, Robert Conrad,
Stefanie Powers and Connie Stevens.

Hoey later would direct episodes of Dallas, Falcon Crest,
Murder, She Wrote and Crossroads Café; wrote for the shows The Rat Patrol, Get
Christie Love! and McCloud; and served for years as executive producer of the
Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

He also wrote the books Elvis, Sherlock and Me: How I
Survived Growing Up In Hollywood; Sherlock Holmes and the Fabulous Faces: The
Universal Pictures Repertory Company; and Elvis’ Favorite Director: The Amazing
52-Year Career of Norman Taurog.

He served two four-year terms as a governor on the board
of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and the WGA honored him with
its prestigious Morgan Cox Award in 1997.

Hoey asked that his film books be donated to the USC
School of Cinematic Arts, where he taught editing as an adjunct professor.

In addition to his son Dennis, a former Hollywood makeup
artist and producer of TV commercials,

survivors include his daughters Lauren
and Karin.

The family plans a small memorial service, with his ashes
scattered at sea.

Brian G. Hutton, who directed Clint Eastwood in the WWII
actioners “Where Eagles Dare” (1968) and “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970) and also
directed Elizabeth Taylor in two films, has died. He was 79.

“Where Eagles Dare,” a thriller based on the Alistair
McLean novel, also starred Richard Burton, while “Kelly Heroes,” a heist film
masquerading as a war film, sported a large ensemble cast that included Telly
Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O’Connor and Donald Sutherland.

Hutton’s 1972 drama “X, Y and Zee” starred Elizabeth
Taylor, Michael Caine and Susannah York concerned an an architect, his
mistress, and the wife intent on breaking them at all costs. Follow-up film
“Night Watch,” starring Taylor and Laurence Harvey, was a thriller.

Hutton did not direct again until 1980’s Lawrence Sanders
adaptation “The First Deadly Sin,” starring Frank Sinatra as a New York police
detectice and Faye Dunaway as his dying wife.

His final directorial effort was the 1983 adventure
romance “High Road to China,” starring Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong.

Hutton made his feature directorial debut with 1965’s
“Wild Seed,” a sensitive romantic drama. The following year he helmed “The Pad
and How to Use It,” a comedy based on a play by Peter Shaffer.

While Hutton directed nine films, he actually spent more
of his career as an actor. He appeared in the John Sturges Westerns “Gunfight
at the O.K. Corral,” starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and “Last Train
from Gun Hill,” starring Douglas; the Roger Corman movie “Carnival Rock”; Elvis
Presley pic “King Creole”; the 1958 crime drama “The Case Against Brooklyn,”
starring Darren McGavin; and Frank Borzage’s “The Big Fisherman.”

Hutton also guested on a number of Western-themed TV
series including “Gunsmoke,” “Have Gun — Will Travel,” “Rawhide,” “Wagon
Train,” as well as on “Playhouse 90″ and “Perry Mason,” among other shows.

Hutton was born in New York City, and in addition to his
own acting and directing, he also ran an acting class at the Beverly
Hills Playhouse. In the mid-’80s he left showbiz for a career in real estate.

Thomas ‘Tom’ Pevsner a British producer, director and
assistant director died on August 19th 2014. Pevsner was born in
Dresden, Germany and began his career in the film industry as an assistant
director at the beginning of the 1950s. As such, he worked until 1970. In 1962,
made his directional debut with the German comedy film “Finden sie, daß
Constanze sich richtig verhält?”. Lilli Palmer and Peter van Eyck starred in
the film.

From the mid-1960s Pevsner operated as a producer, which
he invariably became an Associate Producer in appearance. An example of this is
the film adaptation Dracula. From 1979 to 1981 he was involved in this function
on several James Bond films, his first film was James Bond 007 “For Your Eyes
Only”. This was followed by “Octopussy” (1983), “A View to a Kill (1985) and
two films with Timothy Dalton in the lead role: “The Living Daylights” (1987)
and “License toKill” (1989). For the
1995 Bond film “Goldeneye” Pevsner served as executive producer. After he
retired from the film business he was only seen in documentaries about the
James Bond films.

The daughter of actor Jessie Evans and director Donald
Bain, Imogen Bain overcame childhood dyslexia to follow them on to stage,
television and film.

As a child actor, she played Leonard Rossiter’s daughter
in Peter Everett’s The Baby’s Name Being Kitchener for the BBC’s Thirty-Minute
Theatre in 1973.

After studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama,
Bain made her professional debut in Sheila Hancock’s 1981 revival of Otway’s
The Soldier’s Fortune for the Cambridge Theatre Company.

The following year, she appeared in Once a Catholic at
the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, and in 1984 made her West End debut in Daisy
Pulls It Off at the Globe Theatre. In 1986, she returned to the West End in
Blithe Spirit at the Vaudeville Theatre.

Bain’s National Theatre appearances included Richard
Eyre’s 1992 revival of The Night of the Iguana and opposite Judi Dench in Sam
Mendes’ production of Edward Bond’s The Sea (1991). At the Almeida Theatre,
Bain shared the stage with Alan Bates in Thomas Bernhard’s The Showman in 1993.
More recently, she appeared in West Yorkshire Playhouse’s 2006 revival of Hedda
Gabler.

Her film career began in the gritty 1982 drama Scrubbers.
Other notable appearances included Hollywood blockbusters Robin Hood – Prince
of Thieves (1991), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), and Steven Berkoff’s 1994
adaptation of Decadence.

Bain’s television roles ranged from Casualty, The Bill,
New Tricks, Waking the Dead and Doctors to Little Dorrit, Little Britain, The
Sarah Jane Adventures and Ripper Street.

Together with Andrea Brooks, she formed the Good Luck
Company in 1984 and produced a series of lunchtime theatre performances that
included Pinter’s The Lover, Sartre’s Huis Clos and a one-man show by Ian
Puleston-Davies. In her own one-woman show, Happy Hour (written by Nicholas
Reader), she played three characters. In recent years, Bain gave classes at the
Actors Centre.

Imogen Bain was born in London on April 17, 1959. She
died, aged 55, on July 5. She is survived by her husband, the actor Simon
Holmes.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Alan Landsburg, a television writer, producer and
director who in later years focused on improving horse racing as a racing
commissioner and industry leader, died Thursday at the age of 81.

Mr. Landsburg graduated from New York University with a
degree in communications and then honed his skills in the U.S. Army as a
writer, director, and producer of special events for the American Forces
Network in Europe. Following his discharge in 1956, this broadcasting
experience helped him become one of the youngest directors ever when he joined
the NBC radio affiliate in New York at the age of 21. From there he moved to
Los Angeles in 1961 to join the new Wolper Productions, which was his opening
into television.

An Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee, he was
responsible for more than 2,000 hours of network programming, including the
“Biography” series, “National Geographic” specials, “The Undersea World of
Jacques Cousteau,” and “That’s Incredible.” He frequently addressed important
social issues in his films. Spousal abuse, rape, religious intolerance, child
sexual abuse, breast cancer, and AIDS were some of the important subjects that
Mr. Landsburg treated with candor, intelligence, and sensitivity. “Bill”
starred Mickey Rooney as a man with mental retardation struggling to
re-integrate into society after being institutionalized.

Mr. Landsburg purchased his first share in a thoroughbred
in 1977 and went on to own and race more than 400 horses. In 1993 he became a
founding director of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), which sought
better representation for the owners of California racehorses. He also served
on a number of volunteer committees for the California Horse Racing Board. He
was appointed to the CHRB in 2000 by Governor Gray Davis to a term that expired
January 1, 2004. He served as chairman in 2001 and 2002.

Mr. Landsburg donated his time and expertise in the
production of several videos promoting the horse racing industry, including one
for the CHRB titled “Protecting Racing’s Integrity.” He also made a video for
the TOC that demonstrated to the Legislature just how important racing is to
California.

"Our industry has lost a true leader and
compassionate friend,” said CHRB Chairman Chuck Winner. “Alan always strived to
do what was best for people and animals alike. I personally, like so many of
us, will miss him."

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences
to the family and friends of Alan Landsburg.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Marjorie Stapp was born on September 17, 1921 and passed
away on Monday, June 2, 2014.

Marjorie was an American actress who was mainly in
low-budget pictures. She began her film career when she signed a contract with
the film studio 20th Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her first screen appearance was
in The Kid from Brooklyn, a film starring Danny Kaye. This was followed by
another minor appearance in Linda Be Good in 1947. Eventually, she landed a
leading role in the Western movie The Blazing Trail alongside Charles Starrett.

Throughout the 1950s until the 1990s, she appeared in
both films and television, including Cheyenne, The George Burns and Gracie
Allen Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Life and Legend of Wyatt
Earp, Dragnet, Elmer Gantry, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, 77 Sunset Strip,
The Brady Bunch, Quantum Leap and Columbo.

Marjorie retired from acting in 1991. She married Bob
Browne and moved to Los Angeles,then
North Carolina and eventually back to Los Angeles. Marjorie was a resident of
Laguna Woods, California at her passing.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

MEXICO CITY – Mexican actress Columba Dominguez, who
worked with director Luis Bunuel during Mexico's golden age of cinema, died at
85 on Wednesday of unknown causes.

Dominguez, recipient of a lifetime achievement award at
Mexico's Ariel Awards ceremony last year, appeared in more than 60 films and TV
series throughout a career that spanned six decades. She is best known for the
lead role in the Bunuel drama The River and Death, and for Pueblerina, a
romantic drama from renowned writer-director Emilio Fernandez.

Dominguez's nephew Giuliano Molina, who made the
announcement of the death via Twitter, posted a picture Wednesday of his aunt
and Fernandez having drinks with Marilyn Monroe.

Dominguez was a second cousin of Babel screenwriter
Guillermo Arriaga.

The film academy here said in a statement that Mexican
cinema has lost one of its great icons.

He loves cooking breakfast for Dee and letting her
cleanup, letting people know how special they really are and how much he cares
for them, being kind, generous, always willing to help anyone, all little
children for their innocence, singing when coming into a room, reciting poems,
plays and other works deeply embedded in his brain, working/playing on his
computer, doing genealogy, solving Sudoku, listening to music that the
bass/drums don’t drown out the vocal or song, watching CNN, baseball, golf,
educational programs and eating food that tastes really good.

Served his country as a Marine Corporal in WWII on the
Pacific Front, Saipan, Tinian, Rota, other small islands and awarded a Purple
Heart from Iwo Jima for shrapnel in his neck to this day.

As well as his extensive involvement with the Maui
Democratic Party.

Served his God in service to others by his longtime community
works on Maui as a 32 degree Mason, a 33 degree Scottish Right, a Shriner.and
withKihei-Wailea Rotary, Women Helping
Women, Ke Hale aka Ola, Hale Kau Kau, Maui Friends of the Library, Read to Me,
Junior Achievement, Kihei Charter School, Maui Special Olympics, Maui Bowl,
Christmas Tour of Homes, played Santa Claus for non-profit agencies/hotels and
a Disaster Volunteer with the American Red Cross serving for almost 10 months
after 9/11 in Washington DC.

After WWII he returned home to Norman Oklahoma and
graduated from Oklahoma University stopping to teach for 1 year High School
English Literature in Ava, Missouri before moving on to New Yorkto begin his life work as a character actor.
Moving to Hollywood CA in 1951 to work on stage and in TV and films doing his
first Gunsmokein 1956 and continued
performing in hundreds of various roles such as Dragnet, Days of Our Lives,
Topaz until he retired in 1990 Doing one more role on Maui in a Swedish film
called “Gone to Maui” (Dee had a small part).

His career shined brightly without to much notice but his
legacy lives on as he is seen in all the countless reruns of his hundreds of
works in both color and black and white!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The actress guest-starred on dozens of other TV shows,
including 'Twilight Zone,' 'Bewitched' and

'Hogan's Heroes,' and had a romance
with James Dean

Actress Arlene Martel, an exotic beauty who played the
prospective bride of Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock in the only episode of NBC’s
Star Trek set on the planet Vulcan, has died. She was 78.

In the episode “Amok Time,” which opened Star Trek’s
second season on Sept. 15, 1967, a feverish Spock is compelled to return to his
home planet, where he must “mate or die.” Martel’s character, T’Pring, was
betrothed to him as a child, and the outcome of a fight between Spock and
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) will decide whether she marries the logical
first officer on the Starship Enterprise.

“I was just so happy to be working and playing a part
that was so challenging in terms of what I had done before,” Martel said in Tom
Lisanti’s 2003 book, Drive-in Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the
Sixties. “I had no idea it would continue to this day. Fans purchase my Star
Trek photos at conventions, where I sign autographs. I had no idea that T’Pring
would be so memorable to people.”

Said Nimoy on Twitter: “Saying goodbye to T’Pring, Arlene
Martel. A lovely talent.”

A native of the Bronx who was frequently billed as Arline
Sax, her birth name, Martel also appeared on two episodes of The Twilight Zone,
on five Hogan’s Heroes installments as French underground contact Tiger and two
on Bewitched as the scary witch Malvina.

Playing women of various nationalities and ethnicities,
she guest-starred on such shows as Death Valley Days, The Detectives, Route 66,
The Untouchables, Cheyenne, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., My Favorite Martian, The
Monkees, The Outer Limits, The Young and the Restless, Columbo, Battlestar
Galactica and Brothers & Sisters.

In the 1957 Warner Bros. documentary The James Dean
Story, directed by Robert Altman, Martel said she was romantically involved
with the actor for years. “Once I told him I loved him, but he pretended he
didn’t hear,” she says in the film. “Then he said, ‘You can’t love me. I don’t
think anyone can yet.’ ”

As a teenager, Martel was accepted into the High School
for the Performing Arts in New York City (where her classmates included future
Bob Newhart Show actress Suzanne Pleshette) and appeared on Broadway in the
1956-57 comedy Uncle Willie opposite Norman Fell.

On the big screen, Martel appeared with Rod Taylor in
Hong Kong (1961), had the lead in The Glass Cage (1964) and played a biker
chick in Angels From Hell (1968). More recently, she had a small role in Adam
Shankman’s A Walk to Remember (2002).

Martel was married three times, including to actors Boyd
Holister and Jerry Douglas, a longtime player on the CBS soap opera The Young
and the Restless.

In addition to Jod, survivors include daughter Avra
Douglas, a former assistant of Marlon Brando’s and an executor of the actor’s
estate; son Adam Palmer; and grandchildren Molly Rose and Dashiell.

Memorial services are pending. The family asks that
donations be made to the organization Cure Autism Now.

Martel died Tuesday from complications of a heart attack
at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, her son, Jod Kaftan, told The
Hollywood Reporter.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Lauren Bacall, the film and stage
actress and model who was known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry
looks, died Tuesday at the age of 89.

The celebrity news website TMZ quoted family as saying
that she died at her home of a massive stroke. A separate report from cable
news outlet MSNBC always quoted a family source as confirming the death.

Bacall first emerged as a leading lady in the Humphrey
Bogart film To Have and Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir
genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage
(1947), and Key Largo (1948), as well as comedic roles in How to Marry a
Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory
Peck.

Bacall also worked on Broadway in musicals, gaining Tony
Awards for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981. Her performance in
the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and
an Academy Award nomination.

In 1999, Bacall was ranked #20 of the 25 actresses on the
100 Stars list by the American Film Institute. In 2009, she was selected by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary
Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion
pictures."

Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx, New York,
the only child of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a secretary who later legally
changed her surname to Bacall, and William Perske, who worked in sales; both of
her parents were Jewish. Her mother emigrated from Romania through Ellis
Island, and her father was born in New Jersey, to Polish parents.

Ed Nelson, a prolific actor who became a familiar face to
U.S. television audiences over 40 years, notably as a star of the prime-time
soap opera “Peyton Place,” died Saturday in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was
85.

Asta Hansen, a daughter-in-law, confirmed the death.

Handsome at 6 feet tall, Nelson had a prominent role on
“Peyton Place” as Michael Rossi, a New York doctor who sets up practice in the
fictional town of the show’s title and is quickly caught up in its romantic
intrigues.

“Peyton Place,” which ran from 1964 to 1969 on ABC, was
based on the 1956 novel of the same title by Grace Metalious, which was also
adapted for a 1957 film with Lana Turner. The TV version also featured Dorothy
Malone and a young Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal.

Nelson appeared in 436 episodes of “Peyton Place”; at its
peak, the show was seen three times a week. He also appeared in a 1977
television movie spinoff, “Murder in Peyton Place.”

Nelson’s career began in earnest in the mid-1950s, when
he appeared in low-budget films like Roger Corman’s “Attack of the Crab
Monsters.” He went on to appear in scores of popular television shows, many of
them westerns during the genre’s television heyday, among them “Have Gun — Will
Travel,” “Bat Masterson,” “Gunsmoke,” “Rawhide” and “The Rifleman.”

His other credits included “The Detectives,” “The
Untouchables,” “The Twilight Zone” (in an episode, “Valley of the Shadow,” in
which he starred as a reporter who finds himself trapped in a deceptively
sleepy town), “The Fugitive,” “The FBI,” “The Rockford Files” and “Quincy,
M.E.”

His last screen appearance was in a small role in the
2003 film “Runaway Jury,” with John Cusack, Rachel Weisz and Dustin Hoffman.

A stage actor as well, Nelson played President Harry S.
Truman in a nationally touring production of “Give ’Em Hell, Harry!”

Edwin Stafford Nelson was born on Dec. 21, 1928, in New
Orleans. He attended Tulane University there but left after two years to study
acting in New York City. He returned to New Orleans to work in local television
before moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He served in the Navy
as a radioman on the light cruiser USS Dayton.

In 1972 he completed his college degree at Tulane.

Nelson, who lived in Greensboro and was recently in
hospice care, is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former Patricia Miller;
his daughters, Cynthia Borders, Beth Moore, Mary Sanders andAnn Bochenski; his
sons, Gregory and Christopher; 14 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.